Iconic Star Wars voice actor Ashley Eckstein may be beloved by fans of the galaxy far, far away for her work as Ahsoka Tano, but she soon will take on the task that makes her the most nervous she is for anything: hosting the Her Universe Fashion Show at San Diego Comic-Con. The 2024 event will also be the tenth anniversary show, as Her Universe was able to produce a virtual version when live in-person wasn't possible. She spoke with CinemaBlend ahead of the fashion show on July 25 about the Mattel partnership for 2024 and the spread of geek couture.
"Geek couture" refers to how fandoms can be represented with high fashion that goes above and beyond cosplay, with Eckstein both hosting the Her Universe Fashion Show to showcase the designers as well as showing off some of the fashions herself. When I recently spoke with Eckstein, I asked how it feels for her to see geek couture spreading not only at SDCC, but beyond conventions at this point, and she shared:
It's something that I'm beyond proud of, and it is something that I will take a bit of credit for. Not for the geek fashion trend – fans were designing geek-inspired fashion for years and years and years. I just saw it at San Diego Comic-Con, I saw that the fans were using the hallways of San Diego Comic-Con as their runway, and I just thought it was such a travesty that the fans didn't have a proper runway to walk on. When we started the first fashion show, I had to talk about it with confidence, and so I came up with the term 'geek couture.' That phrase did not exist before our fashion show. I literally made it up. But I talked about it like it was a thing. Definitely like a 'fake it 'til you make it' type of thing.
And she certainly did make it! What better time to reflect on the origin of "geek couture" than on the tenth anniversary of the Her Universe Fashion Show, which itself follows the show celebrating the 100th anniversary of Disney last year? Ashley Eckstein continued:
I was like, 'Oh yeah, geek couture! It's totally the emerging trend.' [laughs] I was like, 'Yeah, haven't you heard of it? Geek couture!' And so now, when I hear it – like you said – everywhere, even beyond San Diego Comic-Con, I always have a little bit of a giggle and I'm just so proud of how far it's come. I'm proud that designers and fans have their own space, that it's recognized. It's not just written off as this thing that only exists at Comic-Con. No, geek-inspired fashion is very much a thing and now we do see it infiltrate the Met Gala or the runways at at Fashion Week in New York and Paris and Milan. It is a thing.
Of course, even though "geek couture" does extend beyond the walls of San Diego Comic-Con and is acknowledged as such, the Her Universe Fashion Show is really a one-of-a-kind showcase of the designers. And not just because Eckstein has been able to recruit standout co-hosts in recent years, including RuPaul's Drag Race alum Nina West (by sliding into DMs) and then Broadway's Michael James Scott, with Scott returning for 2024.
This year's fashion show will be presented by Mattel, and Ashley Eckstein went on to share why Her Universe and Mattel are a great fit:
Especially as we're talking about brands like Barbie and empowering brands, especially as women. I'll be the first to say, I naturally sometimes try to hide my voice and say, 'Oh, well, isn't that cool? Yeah, I didn't really do that.' But no, I am proud that it started here. It started at the Her Universe Fashion Show and it's grown beyond that. I'm proud of our team and I'm proud of the designers and I'm very thankful to San Diego Comic-Con for giving us the opportunity to do it. And now it has become a thing. It is something that I'll take ownership for a little bit. I'm like a proud mom that has seen this thing that we've built go off and almost go to college, you could say, and it's something I'm very proud of.
Barbie has always been a popular part of the Mattel brand, but perhaps never more so across demographics than following the release of the Barbie movie almost exactly one year before the 2024 Her Universe event at SDCC on July 25. Eckstein shared what feels different this year for the tenth anniversary with Mattel as sponsor, saying:
I do feel the magnitude of ten years. I think whenever you hit a milestone like this, you do feel the weight of it. There's also an expectation with it, especially now. Last year our sponsor was Disney. This year, our sponsor is Mattel. When you have big studios like that, and a major corporation like Mattel – which was practically my childhood – being your sponsor, we get to play with properties like Barbie and Polly Pocket. Literally the toys that I grew up on and that I loved. There is naturally going to be a weight to that, and I just want to do it justice. I'm very excited about and proud of what we're putting together.
Eckstein clarified that she has a "rule that I'll never design for something or I'll never stand behind something and support something that I'm not a fan of or I don't believe in," and her Barbie and Polly Pocket love goes back to the '90s. In fact, she explained that her connection to Polly Pocket has continued through her whole life:
In fact, one of my nicknames is Polly Pocket, because people when they meet me, they don't expect me to be so short. That's the number one thing they say. They're like, 'Oh wow, you're a lot shorter than we thought.' And so people have often called me Polly Pocket because they're like, 'Oh, you're pocket size!' But I've owned it. I never took that as like a negative because I love Polly Pocket. Just like Polly, I've always been in my own world. I kind of beat to my own drum. I like to design my own world, so I loved Polly Pocket... You will see the passion I have for Mattel in their brands is very genuine, so I'm excited to celebrate almost 80 years of Mattel.
Fortunately, the wait to see the 2024 Her Universe Fashion Show with its Mattel sponsorship is nearly over. The event will happen on Thursday, July 25 at 6 p.m. PT in the Harbor Ballroom of the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel in San Diego as part of San Diego Comic-Con. Ashley Eckstein will open the show herself with a geek couture look of her own before joining forces with Michael James Scott – whose fun Disney connection is playing the Genie in Broadway's Aladdin – to host.
